


You Could Be My Drug

by kaguya_yoru



Series: Everybody Talks [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Boot Worship, D/s AU, F/M, Japanese Rope Bondage, Light BDSM, Light Dom/sub, Rope Bondage, Shibari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:10:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6762736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaguya_yoru/pseuds/kaguya_yoru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It took months before Tony first worked up the nerve to ask Pepper about it.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Could Be My Drug

**Author's Note:**

> The next story in this series will be called _And That Was When I Kissed Her (Him)_ and I'm still hard at work on it at the time of the posting of this story.
> 
> In the meantime, I give you this interlude.
> 
> The underage tag is because this chronicles events in the first two years of Tony's and Pepper's relationship. This story takes place from the end of Tony's freshman year, when he turns 15, to the summer after his sophomore year, when he is 16; Pepper and Bruce move from their sophomore year to the summer after their junior year during the same time period. This is a D/s verse but only light D/s happen in the fic.

_“Tell me everything,” he said, pulling so that Steve had no choice but to sit down. “Does he tie you up? Make you lick his boots? Is he into painplay?”_

_Steve’s mouth dropped open. “What? No!”_

_“Huh,” Tony said. “I always figured he would be really kinky.”_

_Steve tugged his hand out of Tony’s grip and glared at him. “This seems less like you helping me and more like you wanting to find out Phil’s kinks.”_

_“Well, I am curious,” Tony said with absolutely no shame. “Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy with Pepper but Phil just has that presence, you know?”_

\- Chapter 1, _It Started with a Whisper_

 

_Does he tie you up?_

It took months before Tony first worked up the nerve to ask Pepper about it. It wasn't that he was ashamed of the kink; he just hadn't wanted to move things too quickly and scare her off. He was precocious for a 14 year old; he already knew what he wanted in life and he wasn't afraid to move heaven and earth to get it. He plotted, he schemed, he leveraged his advantages, and when the moment was right, he let the pieces fall into place.

It's the reason he’d been able to convince his father to let him start working in the lab at the age of four, had his own personal lab by the age of six, and had been able to convince a sophomore to become his Domme when he'd been less than a month through his own freshman year of high school.

So he waited until their claim wasn't quite so new. He waited until Pepper had lost that slightly terrified look on her face whenever she gave a command. He waited until there was no longer a pause between the instant he began behaving like an insufferable brat and the dominance in her voice came out.

Then he asked her - casually, while she was doing homework and he was working on a research paper - if she wouldn't mind tying him up sometime. He purposefully timed it so that it was a month before his birthday.

She gave him a long, searching look and said, “We’ll see.”

For the next month, she didn't bring up the topic at all and Tony had to push down his disappointment. He woke up the morning of his birthday with dread weighing down his limbs. Once he’d started tinkering in the lab, his father had begun throwing him lavish corporate birthday parties. It was an uncomfortable affair for pretty much everyone but his father who used the occasion to get completely blitzed and berate his employees for not being able to out-think a child. The only bright spot was that he would be attending the party with Pepper this year and he was hoping they would be able to use the excuse of their relatively new claim to slip out early.

Pepper surprised him by arriving at his house three hours before the party.

“Go take a shower,” she ordered as soon as she stepped into the garage. Tony blinked at her, arms buried within the bowels of a car engine. He was completely filthy and at some point, he was pretty sure he'd rubbed his greasy hands through his hair. “When you're done, I want you to meet me in your room in cotton underwear and an undershirt.”

Steel had been in every syllable so Tony didn't argue, immediately dropping the tools and heading for his bathroom. He scrubbed every bit of his skin and made sure every speck of oil and dirt had been cleansed from his hair. Steam fogged the mirror when he was done with the shower so he used a towel to wipe a spot clean, peering at his blurry reflection while he brushed his teeth and gargled some mouthwash. A few swipes of a razor took care of the straggly strands of hair that were starting to come in on his chin and upper lip before he dressed in a plain cotton undershirt and boxers.

He was definitely curious as to what Pepper planned to do; this was the most unclothed he'd ever been in front of her. The cool rush of air when he finally opened the bathroom door was a welcome relief and he sauntered out, a question already on his lips.

The words faded away when he saw the bundles of jute lying on his bed.

“Stand here,” Pepper ordered and Tony went gladly. “Don't speak,” she said and his mouth shut with an audible click.

He was trembling a little with excitement when she began to wrap the first length around his neck. Her movements were deliberate and sure; it was obvious that she'd spent a lot of time practicing the knots and ties beforehand. A geometric pattern began to form as she went along, diamonds the repeating motif, and Tony became mesmerized by the motions of her hands and the growing feeling of constriction as the ropes firmly hugged his body. He was hard by the time she reached his crotch and she didn't hesitate, wrapping the ropes so that a large diamond encased the bulge.

Pepper had to get down on her knees to continue the ropes down his legs. Tony looked at the strawberry blonde hair that covered her bent head, parted neatly down the center, and wondered what the hell he'd done to deserve such a gift.

He wasn't thinking about the shibari.

When she finished, ropes encased much of his body, wrapped around his torso and continuing down his legs before ending at his ankles. She walked around him slowly, eyes critical as she looked at the pattern, sliding a finger between rope and clothing here and there to check the tightness. Tony felt not unlike a work of art as Pepper moved his limbs with detached precision.

Finally, she circled back around to his front and looked him in the eyes, truly focusing in on him for the first time since she began. Her gaze searched his expression; he had no idea what he looked like but she seemed satisfied with what she saw.

“Get dressed,” she said softly and disappeared into the bathroom with her bag.

A quiet calm had descended over him. He slowly pulled on his tailor-made white dress shirt and black suit, reveling in the feeling of the ropes alternately tightening and loosening with each movement of his body. After he was completely clothed, he stood in front of his full-length mirror, unable to stop himself from running his hands down the lapels of his suit jacket. He couldn’t see them in his reflection but he could feel the bumps of the knotted rope.

Half an hour passed before Pepper re-emerged from the bathroom. She wore a full-length black dress with a halter neckline, dainty kitten heels gracing on her feet. Normally, her hair hung in a shining fall down to her waist; when she turned around so that he could zip up her dress, he saw that it had been gathered into an elaborate chignon bun, its twists reminiscent of the turns of the rope enveloping his body. She stood ramrod straight as he dragged the zipper up the strip of fabric bisecting her back, her delicate shoulder blades visible on either side, to where it joined the one encircling her neck. No makeup adorned her face when she turned back around and a sprinkling of freckles graced the bridge of her nose and the tops of her cheeks.

“You are exquisite,” Tony told her hoarsely.

He was the consummate escort during the party, attending to her every need. He made no effort to pull his usual pranks or shame his father’s employees with his superior intellect. Murmurs about puppy love arose wherever they passed, with a few of the more bitter Stark Industries employees making acerbic remarks about the youngest Stark being already whipped, perhaps in more ways than one. Tony ignored all of it.

At the end of the evening, his mother gave Pepper a considering glance and then told Tony that she had never been more proud of him. His father let out a loud snort, passed out in a nearby armchair.

That night, Tony knelt for Pepper for the first time. She stood before him, shoulders thrown back in a carriage as regal as any member of royalty, and looked down at his upturned expression of awe.

“Good boy.”

 

_Make you lick his boots?_

The summer after her sophomore year, Pepper started working her first job. It was nothing glamorous, just minding the ticket counter at the local museum, but it gave her free admission whenever she wanted and the opportunity to talk with the curators of the exhibits. She was the youngest employee by far and in an effort to appear more mature, she wore her first pair of stilettos to orientation.

Several hours later, she was wholeheartedly regretting her decision, the backs of her calves burning with fatigue and the balls of her feet howling in agony. Pepper limped her way into Tony’s den that afternoon, cursing the square footage of the mansion, and wishing that she’d had the foresight to bring flats with her.

“What was I thinking?” she groused as she threw herself on the sofa, ready to hurl the offending shoes into the farthest corner of the room.

Tony actually spared a glance her way as he worked through some problem on a transparent glass board. She paused in the act of reaching for her shoe, one leg crossed over the other, when Tony did a double-take. He had the same expression on his face as he did when he got a sudden revelation in the midst of trying to solve a problem: eyes round and lips parted slightly.

“May I?” he asked, voice scratchy from disuse.

“Go ahead,” Pepper said after a short pause, curious to see what he would do.

His gaze was fixed as he dropped the dry erase marker to the floor and moved closer. Sinking to his knees in front of her, he stared at her foot as if he’d never seen it before. His hands curled gently around the arch of her foot and the curve of her ankle, one thumb stroking the top of the foot as his other hand traveled up the back of her calf.

The pain in her feet receded somewhat as warmth flooded her center. She bit her lip as she felt herself grow wet, stifled a moan as Tony’s calloused fingertips stroked along the delicate skin of her calf. When Tony bent to place a kiss directly on the dividing line between the skin of her foot and the instep of the shoe, her fingers curled into the couch cushions.

It was weeks later before she decided to act on the newfound knowledge. A whole week passed without Tony bratting once and she decided that it was enough for him to deserve a reward. In truth, she was all too eager herself to see what his reaction would be.

“I have a surprise for you,” she announced one weekend afternoon. “Meet me in your bedroom in ten minutes.”

Pepper grabbed her bag and made her way from the den to Tony’s bedroom. She was wearing a yellow tank top and a bright pink skirt in deference to the summer heat; she felt a little silly tugging on the patent leather thigh high boots but knew they had been the right ones to get when Tony’s eyes widened when he entered the bedroom later, practically stumbling over himself to fall on her knees at her feet.

“Have you been a good boy, Tony?” Pepper asked, desire heating her own blood as she saw the naked lust in his eyes.

“Yes, mistress,” he replied, a pleading note in his voice.

“Then you may clean my boots,” she commanded, her tone reminiscent of warm steel, crossing her legs and placing the toe of one boot directly in front of Tony’s face.

The boots were already completely clean, of course, having never been worn before. Warmth spread through Pepper’s chest at the reverent look on his face as Tony bent down, pink tongue extending to lap at the shiny material.

 

_Is he into painplay?_

He waited until they were only a few months away from their second claim renewal before he asked her to hurt him.

“Tony, no!” The words burst out of Pepper’s mouth, a horrified expression twisting her features, freckles standing out against her suddenly pale face.

It was obvious that this was non-negotiable. Tony swallowed his disappointment and assured her that everything was fine; it wasn’t an issue at all, it was nothing, no big deal. In the end, he wasn’t sure if she really believed him but they regained their usual equilibrium quickly enough.

That summer, he watched Bruce.

He’d been watching Bruce since the moment they’d met, really. Although they’d never talked about it, he knew Bruce’s story. They had shitty fathers in common but it was the love of science that drew them together, the passion for knowledge and discovery that cemented their bond, and their ability to understand each other in a way no one else ever had or could before that had made them inseparable. He watched Bruce in the same way that he watched Pepper sometimes, with wonder that such an incredible person was willing to share the same air with him. 

Bruce was working on distilling an essential oil from a rare flower. It was delicate, exacting work requiring a degree of patience that Tony could never hope to achieve. But he watched as Bruce painstakingly performed serial distillations over a number of weeks, testing each product thoroughly, discarding the impurities until he finally emerged triumphant with a solution colored the most royal of purples.

He imagined Bruce performing the same transformation on him, painstakingly taking him apart, distilling off Tony’s numerous flaws, and then putting him back together into something breathtakingly new.

“Tony, what is it?”

“Huh?”

Bruce was peering at him over the rims of his glasses, penetrating dark eyes trained on him. “You were staring at me,” he said slowly. “Was there something you needed?”

Tony’s hand curled against his jean-covered leg, fingernails digging into his thigh, sending a bright spark of sensation through him.

“No,” he said, pasting an easy smile on his face. “It’s nothing.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback and comments are much appreciated.


End file.
